


Longing

by Kayo_San



Series: Beginning and Ending [1]
Category: Money Game (Korea TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22818100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayo_San/pseuds/Kayo_San
Summary: It's called longing because it has to go a long way.It's that kind of a feeling that curls up inside you like a knot and takes a long time to unravel.And it unravels only when you pull at both ends.
Relationships: Heo Jae/Chae Yi Heon
Series: Beginning and Ending [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649728
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Longing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SerpentineJ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerpentineJ/gifts).



> Thank you tvN for the great drama - I would write about Eugene and Hye Joon but the series is handling that well so far.
> 
> Thank you also SerpentineJ for the first fic in this community, for this same pairing, for 'antitrust' I'd gift this back to you.

“Buchonglinim…” Chae Yi Heon begins, and everything starts and ends with him.  


“What do you want?” a short reply, a short sentence – to settle everything quickly and cleanly.  


A distraction. Heo Jae knows not to fall for tricks like these. Na Joon Pyo already screwed things up once, Kook Kyung Min another. Nevertheless, he’s entertaining the Level 3. The Level 3 he raised to the Directorship of the IFB because he’s useful.  


The Director, _ah Director Chae_ , crosses the length of his room, laying the file open on his desk. “The issue with the overseas exchange rates, if you put in place the Tobin’s Tax… Lee Hye Joon has come up with a suggestion.”  


Heo Jae feels his lips curve into a smile, unbidden. The unending way that girl strives against the current and all odds, he believes every word he said to the former minister. After all, it is thanks to Officer Lee that he is where he is now. She is a blade, one ready to be wielded.  


Different, from the Level 3 in front of him.  


Chae Yi Heon steps back, as he half bows, his right hand over the buttons of his suit, as if holding back the lanyard tucked into his pocket.  


He glances over the sheet, which is difficult when he’s trying not to let Yi Heon out of his sight.  


Itchy fingered, meddling rascal. Talented and stubborn. Maybe he is learning, especially since he has taken his hand.  


His pause is too long, and the male takes a step back towards his table, pointing at the diagram on the third page, ready to launch into an explanation.  


He’s about to raise his hand and tell the younger male to stop: That he can read perfectly fine and that he, Heo Jae, does not need an explanation of how currencies are traded in diagrammatical form – but he doesn’t.  


The deputy prime minister only leans forward on his desk, closer to Yi Heon, letting his clear and precise summary sweep over him.  


His fingers ghost across the paper, moving from one point to another; their fingers brush as they flip the page in tandem and Heo Jae exhales, deeply, closing his eyes, just thinking.  


_How long?_  


He’s never been comfortable working as an economist. Not when they negotiated _(what a joke)_ with Bahama during the IMF crisis, nor when he was trying to get foreign investment. They put on a mask every time they interact with those wolves. Kook Kyung Min and Na Joon Pyo, all chips off the same, old block.  


But Chae Yi Heon is different.  


“Buchonglinim, is something wrong?” the unfailingly polite tone. He opens his eyes, raising his head to meet Yi Heon’s. Open and concerned.  


Different from his father, clearly. Heo Jae waves him on, and he continues, voice carrying the trace of uncertainty. He can’t help but smile again, thinking of how that voice of uncertainty got Chairman Go fired.  


They reach the end of the document and he is almost disappointed. Not because the document is bad, “It’s good,” but because that’s all the time Chae Yi Heon has bought.  


Like selling the river, selling and trading each other’s time. “Tell Lee Hye Joon she did a good job as well.”  


And Heo Jae relishes in how the younger male in front of him flushes in pleasure.  


They’re so similar it makes him ache. Living in Professor Chae’s shadow is a horror he would wish only on his worst enemy. It’s ironic that Chae Yi Heon was once his enemy.  


They aren’t any more. “You are my person,” and the Level 3 only ducks his head down, Heo Jae repeats the phrase in his head, rolling it around because of how good it sounds.  


_Neoreul, nae saram ida._  


And he wants, this thing he cannot have. It is a philosophical concept of self-ownership. Even if Chae Yi Heon does as he bids him to, they are only together as long as their economic vision aligns.  


Then why is it that he feels so comfortable with him? He can’t explain it, so he just looks at him, awash in the red evening sun.  


“If there isn’t anything else, I will go back first.”  


He nods, feeling the movement through his whole body, down to the shaking of his rolling chair.  


Heo Jae only watches, Chae Yi Heon will come to him eventually, because he has what the man needs.  


The Level 3 stands there for a moment too long, his fists clenching and unclenching, his nervous tic. He’s making a decision that will affect people. After they’ve spent so long together, fighting or working, he can read these and more.  


“Is there something else?” he’s perfected his tone, slight impatience, impersonal questioning that makes Yi Heon anxious. A leopard never changes his stripes, and the Level 3 either needs something else from him, or –  


“Buchonglinim, about Eugene Han,” _ah, so that’s what it is about._  


“What about that friend of ours?” he slips up, the sarcasm in his tone that makes Yi Heon’s lips twitch. A good kind of slip up.  


His licks his lips, the trace glinting in the light, and the furrow to his eyebrows deepens. It means that there’s potential problem that the Level 3 is thinking about. “Officer Lee believes someone else is giving him information. She felt that Director Na wasn’t the first.”  


He leans back in his chair arching an eyebrow, perhaps also to take in the entirety of Chae Yi Heon’s frame. He’s not a child; but it’s difficult not to see him as a junior when he is. “I’ll find that out. You all just focus on fixing up the tax.”  


It’s simply too precious when the Level 3 lingers a touch, “Be careful, buchonglinim.”  


He snorts but basks in the concern the younger male shows him. _How pathetic. The first person who shows up caring and this…_  


“You don’t need to worry about me. If it’s Eugene Han, you better tell Officer Lee to watch out instead.”  


“Those aren’t mutually exclusive,” Yi Heon replies simply and for a moment his breath catches in his throat. “Eugene Han can put both of you in danger at the same time.”  


He hums and simply waves the male out.  


It’s all in his imagination. He just wants to think that they might have a chance.  


But Heo Jae also knows, that’s just wishful thinking. After all, he will not chase Yi Heon. He’s already thrown away his pride when it comes to fixing the economy, he can’t take on more weaknesses.  


Chae Yi Heon will be his undoing, he knows this good and well, but that doesn’t change how when he loses a little more self-control, it’s the Level 3 he’s dreaming about.  


-  


Like a business cycle, their relationship has their ups and downs. This is a clear upside where they show up at each other’s houses in the dead of night and demand entry.  


Heo Jae is more of a morning person, he’s not fond of having drunk people over at home. It’s his safe space, he won’t entertain people in it. Yi Heon is the exception to that rule.  


He makes him want to break more rules that have kept him in the clear, free of scandal all his years as a civil servant.  


Never get drunk. Never take bribes. Never go for ‘entertainment’.  


He should have left him at the door, rather than let him in, and let him drink up all the whisky in the house. Not that it was much to begin with.  


“What do you want now?” his perennial question. After all, they’re actually working together, Heo Jae has no complaints about him, or Officer Lee who works under him.  


“If I tell you… will you give it to me?”  


Yi Heon is drunk on his liquor. Even though he knows where the younger male lives, he wonders if the apartment has been fixed up since the last time he went. Wonders if it’s still bare, with the unopened boxes in the living room.  


“You’re drunk.” The Level 3 bobs his head slowly in reply.  


“I won’t drive you back. Sleep over tonight.” His uncontrollable desire to care for ‘his person’, and he offers before he can help it. His clipped tone melts into an open invitation.  


“I… won’t go back…” Yi Heon agrees while extending his stay indefinitely. Heo Jae rolls his eyes, scoffing at the male who gently rests his cheek on the glass coffee table, closes his eyes and promptly passes out.  


It is the Yi Heon he knows. Who makes messes because he feels like it, and who doesn’t know how to fix them properly. With the Chairman, with Lee Hye Joon, with Bahama.  


In this upswing of their business cycle, he clears away the liquor cup, putting his unused cup back in the cupboard and chucking the empty bottle into the sink, rinsing it with Yi Heon’s cup. Very soon, the lip mark disappears. No one would believe him if he said he had a drunk Chae Yi Heon in his home. But he has no one to tell anyway.  


Yi Heon is half awake when he returns. A good thing since he can’t carry all his dead weight. Chae Yi Heon is not young, and Heo Jae hasn’t been for a while. They only get older.  


His hands are around his neck, his head on his shoulder, and his warm breath, reeking of alcohol makes the hairs on the back of the older man’s neck stand.  
“I haven’t… told you what I want… yet…” his junior’s whispery voice, making him shiver.  


“I didn’t ask again.” He lays Yi Heon down on his bed, pulling back the cover from under him. When Heo Jae turns on the reading lamp, Yi Heon’s eyes are half open, focussed on him, and _molten._  


He tries to calm his suddenly racing heart, but the Level 3 doesn’t seem willing, reaching up and pulling on his shirt.  


He tries not to be too upset; Yi Heon is pulling at his sweater, an action that will undoubtedly ruin the sweater’s elasticity. “So you won’t… give it to me?”  


His fingers are tangling with the grip on his shirt, freeing himself, as he mutters softly, “You are drunk. And you have no idea what you want now.”  


Yi Heon’s hands are around his neck again, pulling him downwards in a movement that hurts his hips, but he can’t think of anything else – “But… you’re not drunk… and you know… what you want.”  


He gently unhooks his junior, who is completely smashed and making a right fool out of both of them. He _wants._ Yes, he knows that.  


“That’s why I won’t ask you.”  


“Well you should,” he continues stubbornly. There’s a trace of a whine to Yi Heon’s voice that sends a rush of blood down into his abdomen and Heo Jae backs up faster than he really wants to.  


“I won’t. Because you’ll regret it tomorrow.”  


Suddenly Yi Heon is sitting up in his bed, leaning slightly forward, and his voice is steady. “What if I won’t?”  


-  


He doesn’t want to wake up, of course. No one would want to wake up from a dream where your mid-life crush throws themselves not only into your arms but your bed.  


Heo Jae has gone past and beyond a mid-life crisis. Chae Yi Heon is his conundrum.  


But still, ‘his person’. He can’t let go, but the deputy prime minister can’t hold him close either.  


A living nightmare; a constant temptation.  


Only, it is not a dream, but a cruel reality.  


He’s awake first, naturally. Chae Yi Heon wakes up a full hour after him and nearly tumbles out of his bed in shock.  


“Buchonglinim…”  


Heo Jae rolls his eyes and addresses him as casually as a superior can a subordinate. “Is that what you’ll call me after drinking all my liquor and sleeping in my bed?”  


He can’t be too surprised at the dishevelled appearance of his Level 3, Chae Yi Heon is a messy sleeper. At least he doesn’t kick.  


“Go and wash up. You’re a mess, and we still have to work.”  


He has all the innocence of a fresh graduate; uncertainty in the face of a new kind of situation. Heo Jae watches him eat the sandwich he’s made with the indulgence of what he wants to think is an older lover.  


He hates and he loves all at the same time.  


“H-heo Jae-nim.” Yi Heon settles on the awkward mix of formal and informality, he only arches an eyebrow.  


“I didn’t say anything weird last night, right?”  


The deputy minister tries to quell the rising tide of hesitance in his chest. Hope crests it. “Some interesting things. But you didn’t tell me the most important thing.”  


“O-oh?” His hesitancy is endearing, in its own way. He’s not sure what to say.  


“You didn’t tell me what you wanted.”  


And he watches, to his amazement, as Chae Yi Heon slowly flushes all the way, from the tips of his ears to his cheeks.  
“Then, last night, we…”  


“You drank and fell asleep, Chae Yi Heon-gwajang,” is obviously the wrong thing to say but he follows simply with, “When you are drunk, you don’t know what you want.”  


“But I know now,” the same voice, the same stubbornness, and “So will you give it to me?” the same words.  


Heo Jae isn’t sure if he should be infuriated or pleased that the other man has played him so thoroughly.  


“Will you take responsibility for it?”  


Yi Heon smiles.


End file.
